Designing Panel Covers for Mass Production 3D Printing

Looking for scalable and cost-effective solutions for mass-producing electrical or control panel covers? This video walks you through the design steps for creating high-quality electrical panel covers using Mass Production 3D printing.
Learn about essential design considerations, such as custom cutouts, embossing, texturing, and more. Understand how 3D printing can eliminate tooling costs, speed up lead times, and deliver a product of high standard. This is essential viewing for anyone involved in industrial machinery, electrical panel covers, or any kind of electrical enclosures.
If you would like to learn more about how to change your approach towards manufacturing products with Mass Production 3D Printing, make sure to SUBSCRIBE to Slant 3D!
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About Slant 3D
🏭 High-Volume 3D Printing: Scalability Meets Flexibility
Slant 3D's Large-Scale 3D Print Farms utilize 1000's of FDM 3D printers working 24/7 to offer limitless scalability and unparalleled flexibility. Whether it's 100 or 100,000 parts, our system can handle it reliably, while still allowing for real-time design updates, ensuring products evolve with the times. This adaptability is key in today's fast-paced world.
🌿 Sustainable Manufacturing: Eco-Friendly Efficiency
Embrace a system that drastically reduces carbon emissions by eliminating carbon-intensive steps in the supply chain, such as global shipping and warehousing. Our approach minimizes this footprint, offering a more sustainable manufacturing option.
⚙️ Digital Warehouses: Parts On-Demand
Think of print farms as a "Digital Warehouse", meaning we can store your parts digitally on a server rather than physically on a shelf. parts are available on-demand, reducing the need for extensive physical inventory.
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[@craigrmeyer]

I really appreciate these focused and specific videos.

[@Nebulorum]

I’m always amazed of the print orientation you use. Would love to have some insights on the build in support, when to use them, etc. it’s in several videos but a review would be cool.

[@logicalfundy]

Well, in his case the orientation is often important for auto-ejection, a feature most hobbyists don't have to worry about. I don't mind a bit of manual labor to take a piece off, but if something is going to be mass produced, then minimizing labor for each piece is important.

[@Liberty4Ever]

I've been 3D printing since the time when hobbyists had to build a 3D printer because the only commercial 3D printers were Stratosys & company. I like to think I know quite a bit about 3D printing but Slant 3D has forgotten more than I'll ever know. I love this Design For 3D Printing series. I'm learning a ton of really good stuff. Thanks!

[@slant3d]

Thanks

[@03jalapeno]

Thanks for all of the 3d printing tips.

[@bubbasplants189]

You're ideas are great, I've been working on modeling objects to have minimal bed surface area and they look better and are plenty strong still.

[@ronfreedman5848]

I did a 1 off control panel for for a boat. Came out ok but would have been so much better with the key points from this vid. Definitely will incorporate in the next one I do.

[@jeremybrouillard]

Man, it's nice to see an engineering point of view on 3D printing. Noting against the work of 3D printing "reviewers", but they chose what they print. As an automation engineer I don't print tiny little boats that sit on a shelf in my basement. Real knowledge for real part. Making the best out of what you HAVE to print instead of printing what ever you want.

[@remocampagna8780]

These little gems all add up, it saves us so much time eventually. Thank you for your efforts.

[@OzFALCON]

do you know some sort of addition for fusion 360 to add textures more automatically. The options on slicers are tough though, having more designs can be helpfull.

[@christianbureau6732]

Each 10 min have soo much great information, thanks

[@janoshorvath9430]

Very useful insights again, thanks! I've also experimented with this fuzzy skin trick lately, and it is a blast! I printed a large box with a low quality black pla+ fila which prints BAD! Top surface after infill layers tend to curl up regardless of temperature or speed. The outer surface though -thanks to fuzzy skin- looks really nice. I can only suggest it!

[@stephenbarlin2314]

Good ideas thank you

[@Bomba388]

My only concern with the fuzzy skin on panels like that is the fact that those kinds of panels are usually used in greasy dirty environments, and fuzzy skin is almost impossible to keep clean..

[@RNMSC]

Mostly the idea is to hide the layer lines. There are other textures that you can use to do that, say a cross hatch of diamonds, or the like. If you are concerned about oily fingers, most machine oils will find their own way into the plastic, regardless. You can always treat it with an epoxy paint layer before installing it.

[@Derp3D]

Love it!

[@Derp3D]

Design, Engineer, Research and print 3D is Derp3D 👍

[@legoman786]

Great video! I just can't get over all the ringing (no input shaping). xD

[@slant3d]

We made that part so highlight the errors that can come up with printing vertically. We overexagerated them a bit.

[@legoman786]

@@slant3d You know, that makes sense. For a channel that highlights all the different manufacturing techniques with FDM, I failed to realize that it was intentional as a teaching tool. Thank you.

[@patrickwasp]

3d printing has its place but this is something where I would definitely go to a metal shop for. Many can manufacture these in 2-3 days very affordably and with much nicer finish and higher contrast lettering.

[@saxplayingcompnerd]

Ok mr mega bucks. Any machine shop is going to charge 3k for 3 days. Have fun with your 4 digit panel cost.

[@patrickwasp]

@@saxplayingcompnerd next time you need a panel made look up protocase. I’ve used them and I didn’t need mega bucks to get great professional products made

[@brazensigilos8161]

Not to mention, the general idea is a warehouse could order these cheaper and get them faster them most metal shops can provide, and can do them even cheaper if the company has it's own in-house 3D printing capability. Having a departments run off a handful of panels that can be touched up with white paint to provide contrast is far quicker and more economical then having to find an outside service to do so, negotiating the order, then waiting for it to be delivered.

[@Sharkbar_]

How did you fit all of your hair under that baseball cap? 🤣😂

[@Dallasrebar]

Such great ideas with the designed in supports. Can you do a video on which supports break away the easiest when you have overhangs and cantlievers? What about bridges, when would you need a support or just let it go without supports.

[@JackDaniels-pk4xf]

good video , lots of ideas but how reliable are these prints in the rough use? lots of dirt und oil etc.

[@royalt9863]

I see you using fuzzy skin on a lot of parts. Maybe touching on what kind of settings for fuzzy skin give the best results would be a good section in a future video?

[@TutorialsIL]

Great videos! Can you do one on how to design those poster tubes that you can carry posters and blueprints in a tube, i tried to design those but they always break in the layer lines and ot must be printed in this orientation because of the tube shape of the design and also to make it extendable for larger blueprint Always finding you videos so easy to implement and understand!

[@RodrigoVzq]

How do you make the texture not apply in the text?

[@georgedoubleyou4098]

Always great content! Super interesting solution with the supports. But I am also wondering about your print quality. Doesnt look that good. Ringing and inconsistent extrusion. Maybe its just the light or the close ups or it is good enough for the intendant purposes.

[@caramelzappa]

Part ejection is incredibly easy if you use a pei sheet. With a bedslinger upside down and a string you can eject the part effortlessly and for free. It seems like you have to redesign a lot of your parts simply because you haven't updated from a glass bed.

[@rodrigocaramello2348]

Nice video thanks, what kind of material would you recommend for this application, ABS?

[@bogdanpank9373]

if you add some bumps tall as letters on opposite side of letters than you could coloring letters by apply some paint on flat surface and roll it over

[@thenextension9160]

Hi can you share the details to the digital noise? What specific settings give you the effect you settled on? Thanks

[@claytonramstead]

Can you explain how you made the text "separately"? Was it two parts that were joined later in the slicer?

[@organicelectrics]

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on printing parts to be touched, like handles and joysticks. I’m also interested in printing very thin features like meshes, screens, or small rods.

[@slant3d]

We are working on those

[@angeloderosa5762]

Thank you for this interesting video. I Imagine that you apply the texture with the fuzzy skin feature, but i don't understand how you apply the texture only on the face and not on the text.

[@riskable]

If the text is a separate part (that you import into the model) it's pretty easy to apply the fuzzy skin only to the main panel part and not the text in PrusaSlicer. You can apply (or not) the fuzzy skin feature to any part individually.

[@sergeb7945]

I understand most of these electrical panels are made for low voltage signals and/or low current But what about AC voltage / high current safety. My understanding is "commercial" electrical enclosures have to comply to a lot of rules about electric shock protection, fire retardant behavior, heat and mechanical resistance. How do you mitigate these contraints with 3D printed parts?

[@slant3d]

You make the part with fire retardant, UL rated, ESD safe material. Just like any other process.

[@ThePunischer1000]

@@slant3d Most electrical cabinets with power electronics must be metal tho. Be it for shock protection or EMF protection. Maybe conductive filaments in conjunction with aluminum tape could offer EMF protection tho.

[@ronnetgrazer362]

@@ThePunischer1000 You might want to mount the components on a PCB with a ground layer all over, and have them protrude from the printed front panel. That does kind of seem redundant.

[@ThePunischer1000]

@@ronnetgrazer362 In an industrial environment like it is proposed here, this is absolutely not sufficient for EMI shielding. You need grounded enclosures with controlled gaps at all panels, or you actually increase your EMI emissions instead of decreasing them. Also, grounded planes on the PCB are reasonable for limiting cross talk between signal lines but do almost nothing for external EMI shielding, since all your conductors on the PCB are antennas in their own right.

[@theebadge]

What material would you use for that application?

[@ethaneveraldo]

What software do you use to add the texture?

[@theborednerds]

What would you say is the minimum (or max) height of texture to apply? Obviously, more texture = more texture, which I can see as useful for improving the grip, but how low can you go to achieve the result while minimizing layer lines? How does layer height affect the printers ability to print the texture? I love this idea and need to experiment, but I didn't catch the parameters you use for the texture.

[@tobias7762]

For me personally: I just do the PrusaSlicer Fuzzy Skin. Goal: No Visible Layer Lines but not too much texture -> thickness of 0.2 and point distance of 0.4 works best (old crappy Ender3 ;-) )

What about a video about design children toys with 3d printing? (multiple colors products seems hard to manufacture)

[@FilmFactry]

How do you generate the texture but not on the text? I assumed the slicer?

[@mirekolszowy1873]

Great queston, I'm also wondering how was this texture applied on surface but not on the text :)

[@FilmFactry]

@@mirekolszowy1873 I know Cura has a FUZZY option but it doesn't look very nice and I think it is applied on all surfaces inside and out.

[@3DThird]

You can exclude areas of the model by adding a modifier which has Fuzzy Skin set to "none". This is one way to do it at least ;)

[@patricktierney4392]

Where do you think the breaking point is to go from making a thing at home to having something mass produced? Is it X number of parts sold per day, order volume of X? Basically, when should someone stop buying more home machines and outsource things? I know you have videos about your quote system, but a video on this topic would be enlightening. Thanks!

[@slant3d]

Depends entirely on the part. We are working to make it so that you only have a single machine for prototyping and can rely on a service for everything else. But tools like our Print on Demand app are meant to help those that don't even want in house prototyping.

[@Vlogger_s]

Yey

[@gauravvaid4248]

I have a question, when ever I print holes vertical they are not round , but why the panel you showed have rounded holes and clean

[@IBreakGames]

I was just gonna comment on that. Those circles look super clean.

[@gauravvaid4248]

Yeah first i thought it printed laying down

[@Antassium]

They have custom 3D printers and have their settings dialed in. Could be due to better machines.

[@gauravvaid4248]

@@AntassiumI think you are right , now I watch the video again and also it looks super clean because of the black colour .

[@Nebulorum]

You normally can add a bit of a teardrop shape to the hole to reduce overhang

[@Trantor475]

The only thing i don't like about this aproach is that there is not any contrast beetwen the text and the panel itself, some stickers will be much better IMO

[@ronnetgrazer362]

You could print a mask that fits over the text, to protect the background as you spray or roll on paint to highlight the text.

[@RNMSC]

Depending on the material, even a marker or paint pen may take care of the contrast, and you can customize the colors to the needs of the operator. i.e. if you have operators with a red/green or blue/yellow colorblindness condition, you can adjust the color of the text (or other graphics) to assist and give good contrast under the lighting conditions of your facility. If you are concerned that they will rub off or something, clearcoat the result.

[@DJNuckChorris]

How do you get that texture in fusion 360?

[@AerialWaviator]

This previous video covers the topic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHrEn4qeq9iKg8U

[@evropapagan5551]

When you print electrical enclosures for customers what materials are you using?

[@bernardtarver]

Whatever it is, I hope it's ESD safe.

[@DaveBoatBuilder]

I'm guessing that's for signal voltage, 3-12v, and not for 3 phase😮

[@paulsullivan649]

Great video. Still not a fan of the texturing, despite understanding your reasoning for it.

[@daliasprints9798]

With a good printer that has input shaping and doesn't have flimsy corners holding 2020s, untextured side surface will look beautiful.

[@georgestone8099]

@@daliasprints9798 Yeah, I have a dialled in BambuLabs P1P and at 0.2mm layer height the layer lines are barely noticeable

[@smalik..]

Wow you are fast ! One day and you have video reply to comments on the previos video . And thanks for "3dprintingkungfu" tips !

where is the wig?

[@petergamache5368]

3D printing may win in a lot of applications but not this one. It's hard to beat control panels made using 2-layer acrylic (Rowmark, etc.) and rotary or laser engraving.

[@goldgoat22]

I miss the hair.

[@slant3d]

It is regrowing.

[@Antassium]

​@@slant3dI hear Avacado and Tuna will help it regrow 😂

[@shadowzedge5793]

​@@Antassiumso will prenatal vitamins lol

[@georgestone8099]

2:33 god damn that is a lot of ringing. You gotta be careful what you show on this channel, because we know you printed this using your print farm..

[@slant3d]

We exagerated the error the smooth part to highlight the kind of issues that can arrise. So we twist the Z looen some belts and put it on a bedslinger so that the error is clear for demonstrating what to avoid.

[@daliasprints9798]

​@@slant3dOk, but ringing and extrusion artifacts and poor layer stacking are a recurring thing on your channel. It gives the impression your farm is way behind the state of the art in print quality, which makes sense because upgrading an entire farm can't be easy, but it's still kinda offputting.

[@MCRuCr]

The print orientation is total idiocy. Just get rid of that text and print it lying down for better printability and strength

[@ronnetgrazer362]

Or make the text recessed and provide contrast with cloisonné painting. Takes practice, or a (printed/lasercut/routed) mask to prevent spills. Or sand afterwards, but I hate that.